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| Notocactus in flower, Hayes, 14 August 2011. |
Cacti thrive in sunny spots, and although they do best when watered regularly in summer, drying out will not kill them. In fact, in the autumn they go onto a south-facing windowsill and do not get any more water until next spring.
I have had most of them for about 20 years, at this and other houses, and they grow slowly but steadily. This one has put out three offshoots and it flowers most years.
It was never labelled, but I think it might be a Notocactus, or a related species, going by the form of the flower. But most Notocacti have brightly coloured flowers, and this one is a particularly pale yellow.
I don't know the name of the small succulent plant behind it. It grew from a leaf I picked up in Kew in the 1970s, or rather, from a leaf from a plant that grew from a leaf ... etc. These days you wouldn't be able to get near enough to Kew's glasshouse plants to collect a fallen leaf.
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| Yellow cactus flower, Hayes, 14 August 2011. |
That is the most beautiful cactus flower photo I ever saw, or expect to see.
ReplyDeleteWeston, Cunningham, and Renger-Patszch all photograhed succulents beautifully. Not surprisingly, W.'s and C.'s looked like the California Hens and Chickens in in our own yard (whatever their proper name is), but yours looks more like R.-P.'s German one. It is the cactus, however, that is most lovely, and your image gets its all out of it.